Live Chat Software: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand leads the Live Chat Software benchmark, and by how much?
• Which brands showed the largest coverage gain and decline across the series?

Tidio leads the Live Chat Software benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 67.7% in October 2026, ahead of tawk.to at 60.2%, a gap of 7.5 points. Across the July 2026–October 2026 series, the largest coverage gain belongs to LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.), which rose from 11.2% to 44.4%, a cumulative gain of 33.2 points that is beyond normal variation. The largest cumulative decline belongs to Zendesk Chat, which fell from 45.6% to 39.0%, a decline of 6.6 points that remains within normal variation; Zendesk Chat is tracked as a watch item after three consecutive monthly declines.

Within the month, LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) moved from 23.3% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 to 44.4% in October 2026, an increase of 21.1 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. These single-month moves extend the brand's already-significant rise across the full series. Zendesk Chat's valid recommendation coverage moved from 42.6% in September 2026 to 39.0% in October 2026, a third consecutive monthly decline that continues the category's only watch-item pattern, though the cumulative movement has not crossed the threshold for a significant decline. Other tracked brands remained within normal month-to-month variation in October 2026.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 374 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

The August 2026 series point of 371 qualified observations and the September 2026 point of 408 both sit between the baseline and current months. Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation among ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The benchmark maintained breadth across all six families in each month.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Live Chat Software

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations became qualified benchmark observations?
• Which observations count toward the public brand-level percentages?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

Each brand-level percentage in the standings below is calculated against these qualified observations, not against the raw collection total.

AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands rank highest on valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• How do presence rate, top-three rate, and rank-one rate differ across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where a brand is mentioned at all, regardless of whether it is recommended. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where a brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist. Top-three rate is the share where a brand appears among the top three recommended options. Rank-one rate is the share where a brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment measures the balance of positive versus negative mentions among all mentions of a brand, and reflects the tone of benchmark answers rather than customer satisfaction or reviews.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand's recommendation coverage rose most since the baseline, and which fell most?
• How did LiveChat and Zendesk Chat move between September and October 2026?

LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) moved from 23.3% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 to 44.4% in October 2026, an increase of 21.1 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Zendesk Chat moved from 42.6% in September 2026 to 39.0% in October 2026, a decline of 3.6 points. HubSpot Live Chat moved from 40.4% in September 2026 to 44.6% in October 2026, an increase of 4.2 points.

Largest Increase: LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.)

LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) rose from 11.2% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 44.4% in October 2026, a gain of 33.2 points beyond normal variation. The brand's presence rate rose from 18.1% to 56.1%, its top-three rate climbed from 7.7% to 38.2%, and its rank-one rate moved from 4.3% to 23.5% over the period. The brand is classified as a significant riser across the four-month series, with its largest single-month move reaching 29.0 points.

Largest Decline: Zendesk Chat

Zendesk Chat fell from 45.6% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 39.0% in October 2026, a decline of 6.6 points. The brand's presence rate declined from 61.6% to 51.6% over the period. Zendesk Chat is classified as a watch item, having declined in each of the three months since July 2026, though the cumulative movement remains within normal variation.

Category Leader: Tidio

Tidio held the category lead with valid recommendation coverage of 67.7% in October 2026, nearly unchanged from 67.9% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate moved from 79.7% to 82.6% across the series.

Stable Brands

Most tracked brands remained within normal month-to-month variation in October 2026. Crisp, Drift, HubSpot Live Chat, Intercom, LivePerson, Olark, and tawk.to all stayed within their expected ranges. tawk.to has declined in each of the two months since August 2026, and LivePerson has declined in each of the two months since August 2026, without moving beyond normal variation in either case.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How can a brand with less coverage still achieve a higher rank-one rate than the coverage leader?
• Which brands have the strongest top-three and rank-one placement profiles?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Top-three and rank-one rates reveal placement quality within the shortlists where a brand appears, and the leading brands show different profiles.

Although Tidio holds the coverage lead, tawk.to and LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) each achieve roughly twice the rank-one rate, with 23.5% in October 2026 versus Tidio's 11.5%. Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes created recommendation observations in this benchmark?
• Which buyer-intent questions are not yet represented in the public series?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, where the prompt asks for a brand or product recommendation.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand has led coverage in every measured month?
• Which month recorded the largest coverage movement in the series?

New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone. The benchmark records the change. It does not, by itself, establish why the change occurred.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often across AI surfaces in October 2026?
• How many tracked brand domains appear among the top cited domains?

The benchmark observed 6,116 citations across 1,834 unique domains in October 2026.

Citations are broadly distributed, with the top 10 domains accounting for a combined 32.1% of all citations and no single domain exceeding 10.3%. Three tracked brand domains appear in the top 10: livechat.com at rank 5 with 128 citations, zendesk.com at rank 6 with 105 citations, and drift.co at rank 7 with 80 citations, while tidio.com appears at rank 8 with 77 citations. General-purpose platforms dominate the top three, with youtube.com, google.com, and reddit.com accounting for 21.0% of citations combined, while software-specific domains including zapier.com and featurebase.app also appear.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across six canonical AI surface families. It is a neutral industry benchmark built from prompt-level observations.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

Get my free AI Company Index